Statute 23 of Elizabeth, Chapter 2, says:
“And be it likewise enacted, that every person who shall say or sing mass, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall forfeit the sum of two hundred marks, and be committed to prison in the next jail, there to remain by the space of one year, and from thenceforth till he have paid the said sum of two hundred marks. And that every person who shall willingly hear mass, shall forfeit the sum of one thousand marks, and suffer imprisonment for a year.
“Be it also further enacted that every person above the age of fourteen years who shall not repair to some church, chapel or usual place of Common prayer, but forbear the same, contrary to the tenor of a statute made in the first year of Her Majesty’s reign, for uniformity of Common prayer, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall forfeit to the Queen’s majesty for every month which he or she shall so forbear, twenty pounds of lawful English money.”
The 29th statute of Elizabeth, Chapter 6, Section 4, says:
“And be it also enacted that every such offender in not repairing to Divine Service, who shall fortune to be thereof once convicted, shall pay into the said receipt of the exchequer, after the rate of twenty pounds for every month. And if default shall be made in any part of any payment aforesaid, that then, and so often, the Queen’s Majesty shall and may by process out of the said exchequer, take, seize and enjoy all the goods, and two parts as well of all the lands, tenements and hereditaments, leases and farms of such offender, as of all other lands, tenements and hereditaments liable to such seizure, leaving the third part only of the same lands, tenements and hereditaments, leases and farms to and for the maintenance and relief of the same offender, his wife, children and family.”
Elizabeth dies in the year 1603 and James I. comes to the throne. He makes all haste to confirm all that Elizabeth had done to plunder and persecute Irish Catholics, and gets his Parliament to pass these acts:
Statute 1, James, Chapter 4. “And be it further enacted by authority of this present parliament, that where any seizure shall be had of the two parts of any lands, tenements, hereditaments, leases or farms, for the non-payment of the twenty pounds due, and payable for each month, according to the statute in that case made and provided; that in every such case, every such two parts shall, according to the extent thereof, go toward the satisfaction and payment of the twenty pounds due and payable for each month, and unpaid by any such recusant.”
Statute 3 of James, Chapter 4, says:
“Inasmuch as it is found by daily experience, that many of His Majesty’s subjects that adhere in their hearts to the Popish religion, by the infection drawn from thence, and by the wicked and devilish counsel of Jesuits, Seminaries, and other like persons dangerous to the Church and State, and so far perverted in the point of their loyalties, and due allegiance unto the King’s Majesty, and the Crown of England, and do the better to cover and hide their false hearts, repair sometimes to church, to escape the penalty of the laws in behalf provided.